Benjamin Fenster

Software Developer

Master's Project — Course Correct

Course Correct amazes everyone who sees it. The user picks what
classes are options to take next semester ("three 200-level computer
science classes"), and then gives preferences for how to arrange the
schedule ("nothing before 11:00 am"). The application will produce
the perfect schedule in seconds.

I first attempted this as a freshman at the University of Vermont,
where my programming background let me craft the entire application
before discovering my knowledge of algorithms just wasn't good enough
to make it work efficiently. Generating schedules from real data
would've taken hours on high-end servers.

As a graduate student four years later, I tackled the problem
again, refining algorithms in my sleep until the program could produce
class schedules from hugely sophisticated requirements in just
seconds.